Permanent Marker
by bjaarcy
Summary: <html><head></head>It's simple: X is the shape Rachel drew through Quinn's face. Songfic/oneshot to Permanent Marker by Taylor Swift, Finnchel, canon! THERE IS VERY MINOR SWEARING.</html>


I don't know about you guys, but Permanent Marker by Taylor Swift is fucking perfect for Rachel Berry/Finnchel when it concerns Quinn. And with that fact, I ended up writing this little (okay, maybe not _that_ little) drabble songfic ting. I will warn you now, this lacks a plot and I honestly have no idea on some of the exact details of when Fuinn dated so bear with me x) But whatever, I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything but the storyline! x3

PS This is supposed to be set post-Journey to Regionals, but you can basically see this happening at any given time of Finnchel :3

PPS T'is in Rachel's POV :) Okay, stop reading this and go read the fic!

* * *

><p>I got out of Finn's car and slammed the door. Finn was already outside the door, smiling sweetly, waiting for me. I smiled back and took his hand as we went up the three steps that led into his home.<p>

Finn stopped at the door and took both my hands as he said, "I'm still really sorry I have to do this to you Rach. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love having you at practice but you and I both know that you'd rather be doing something else." He smiled again, more apologetically this time. He was so cute.

I shook my head and grinned up at him. "I know, Finn," I replied, "And, I told you, it's okay! I'll just be practicing up in your room, all right?" I nodded then pulled my hands from his grip to smooth out the creases on his shirt and pat his shoulders in reassurance.

This was our arrangement. If I really did _not_ feel like watching the Neanderthals that Finn has to play football with – the same ones who threw whatever flavoured slushee at me earlier that day – practice, then I'd hang out at his place and practice whatever solo I managed to snag for glee club. Carol was usually out for work so I didn't have to mind how loud I was singing. And, even if she was home, we don't have any problem with each other, so it's still not an issue. Sure, I would totally love to wait for Finn in the comfort of my own home, but I don't really think my daddies would appreciate walking in on me and Finn making out in my room once they come home; Carol knows well enough to keep her distance from Finn's room whenever we're in there together.

And, okay, maybe practicing isn't the only thing I do in Finn's home. But Finn really doesn't need to know that!

I mean, I really _will_ be practicing for our upcoming duet for the first few minutes he's gone. (Really, Finn and I have to get this song down. Of course I have my part all good and ready, but I've _got_ to find out a way to convince Finn to do this great solo I have lined up for him…) So, just in case Finn comes back for whatever football gear he forgot again, he knows that I was telling the truth. But once I know Finn's really at football practice, I'm gonna be snooping around his room, as I always do, whenever he's not around.

"I don't think Mom's home right now," Finn started again, cocking his head towards the home, listening for any noises to indicate Carol was home. I did the same and heard absolute silence. "So yeah, you can sing as loud as you want. Well, obviously not _too_ loud so the neighbours won't complain –" he began to babble, eyebrows furrowing ever so slightly.

I mocked an offended expression. "Are you saying that your neighbours won't enjoy my performance? Finn, you and I both know that they'd be lucky to hear me _hum_ in the first place!" I said seriously, trying my hardest to hold back a laugh as I teased him.

Finn blushed and looked extremely, but adorably, flustered as he shook his head vigorously. "No, no! I didn't mean it like that! I mean, yeah! You have an awesome voice Rachel! They _would_ be lucky to hear you sing but I'm just saying –"

I giggled and tiptoed briefly to give him a peck on the lips to shut him up. "Oh Finn, I was kidding!" I said, grinning up at him.

"Oh," he finally realized. Finn blinked stupidly and I laughed again. God, he was so adorable.

Finn put his big, warm hands on my waist as he ducked down to kiss me softly. I tiptoed to wrap my arms around his shoulders and kissed him back, shortly biting on his lower lip before I began to deepen the kiss. Then, he pulled away slightly and gave me another sweet, almost heartbreaking, smile. I smiled back sheepishly then looked down as I bit my lip, leaning my forehead against his.

"Practice might run a little long today since we have a game tomorrow but I promise I'll be back as soon as it ends, okay?" he whispered, his warm breath tickling my nose and cheeks.

I nodded and dropped my arms from his shoulders, still looking down. I was already beginning to miss him. Finn pulled a hand away from my waist and used it to tip my chin up, making me look right up at him. He looked at me sincerely and I couldn't help but redden slightly from his honest expression.

"Hey, I said I'll be here as soon as practice ends, okay? And I'll be missing you for every second until I am," he promised. I nodded again and the corners of my mouth twitched upward into a small smile as I tried to control the fluttering butterflies in my stomach.

Finn gently pressed his lips against mine for a fleeting moment before standing up straight. He looked at me momentarily then walked back down to his car. I watched Finn get in then put the car into reverse. And then, when his eyes met mine one last time, I gave him a tight smile and a small wave, silently praying he never find out how he has my wrapped around his finger. After, Finn drove off for football practice and I pushed open the door and entered his home.

"Hello?" I called out hesitantly, closing then locking the door behind me.

Silence replied to me and I went straight up the stairs into Finn's room. I turned the knob and opened the door to Finn's incredibly messy room. I shook my head and clucked as I walked towards his equally desk. As much as I've tried to teach him otherwise, Finn is still a teenaged boy; there is no way he is going to get into the habit of cleanliness any time soon.

After a few minutes of going through the various papers on Finn's desk, I finally found the sheet music for our duet together. I began to warm up and sang the first few bars of the song quietly before clearing my throat and began to practice exactly what I would do for our performance together. This all took roughly 10 minutes. When I glanced back at the clock to realize this, I put down the sheet music on Finn's unmade bed and began to snoop around his room. Finn usually realizes he forgot his equipment within 5 minutes of driving off to practice; I figured since it's already been ten, he had everything he needed and wasn't coming back until practice ended.

I've gone through Finn's stuff before when he was at practice. For the first few times, all I found was more junk around his room and cleaned it up a little. (It was pointless; the same candy wrappers and unneeded trash I threw away ended up in his room the next day.) After giving up on trying to maintain a cleaner room, I made a plan and began to zone in on individual areas to look for things Finn kept to himself. Okay, I know it's rude and I might be breaking some sort of trespassing law because of going through my boyfriend's room, looking for things he's obliged to keep privately, but I can't help myself! As it is, I'm very curious as to what Finn has hiding around here and, besides, it's certainly one way to learn more about him! And, since I want to be a good girlfriend, I want to know if there's anything he's keeping to himself that he should talk to me about. I mean, I'm practically being the Good Samaritan for doing this for him, especially out of love! Besides, I'd be perfectly fine with him going through _my_ things – except my diary. Just –… no. And obviously my underwear drawer because that's just plain weird and awkward. But whatever.

The area I was currently looking through was his bed. I've already gone through his desk and computer. All I found on his desk were various car-related flyers, schoolwork that should have been handed in weeks ago, old sheet music, various toy cars (God knows why they're there), a few pens, and job listings; and on his computer? Porn. After opening the file titled ";)", I was so _truly_ disgusted about what was in it that I didn't even feel offended by the fact that Finn was most likely jerking off to those images rather than me. As soon as I had my chance, I actually confronted Finn and told him to delete all of disgusting videos and images from his computer. He was so flustered that I found out that he didn't even bother asking me how I knew it was there. Thankfully, all of it was gone the next time I logged on the computer.

I pushed off the covers of Finn's bed and glanced at what was underneath, which was clothes; whether they were clean or dirty, I had no idea, so I just pushed them onto the floor. Nothing under the clothes either. Afterwards, I neatly hung them by the chair on his desk. (I would have folded them and put them back in his closet, but I knew I would have gotten distracted and snooped around in there. And I really needed to focus on Finn's bed right now; the closet can wait for later.) Then, I lifted the pillows and checked if anything was underneath them. Again, I found nothing extraordinary; just another candy wrapper. I threw the wrapper away, fluffed his pillows then began to make Finn's bed. Hey, if I was going to go through all of Finn's mess, I may as well clean it up along the way to at least release some of my frustration.

Afterwards, I got on my belly, stretched my arm and began to feel my way underneath Finn's bed. If I was anything, I was thorough, and checking underneath Finn's bed counted in my list of areas to search through. After a few disappointed moments of finding shoes, "missing" socks and even one empty shoebox with the lid tucked underneath it, my hand finally hit something that didn't feel anything like it should have been there. I lifted the bed skirt and peeked at what my hand was feeling. All I saw was a big blob which looked similar to a box. I knocked against the object; it felt like a box too. I felt my way around the object and found an opening for my fingers to grasp onto. Then, I slowly pulled the box my way, careful of anything that could be damaged inside it.

When I pulled the box into my view, I sat up and I realized it was a closed shoebox wrapped in light blue and green striped wrapping with the letters "QUINN" messily scrawled right on the cover in blue permanent marker. I crossed my legs and began to get comfortable against Finn's bed, despite the fact that I was incredibly angry for finding a box dedicated to the damn Cheerio _first_ instead of something similar dedicated to _me._ I set the box on top of my lap and carefully flipped over the lid that was attached to the shoebox. Inside were dozens of pictures, notes and cards, and trinkets which I assumed were from when Finn and Quinn were dating. I felt myself flush and huffed loudly as I got even more irritated and frustrated. _Finn's still keeping all of this stuff from when he was with Quinn?_ No. Absolutely not! Not while _I_ have anything to do about it!

I shook my head furiously and began to sift through the contents. I immediately threw all the tiny trinkets (an expired Valentines' Day chocolate bar, an exceptionally small stuffed… thing, and a really tacky – even for me! – necklace) into the garbage. Then, I pulled out various cards and notes I guessed they handed to each other when they were dating and quickly skimmed through them. I ended up seeing hot, flashing red whenever I read the words "love you" or something of the like near the end of the letters. I think I even growled when I saw the date on one of them, which dated back to the end of our freshman year. I took a deep breath and tried to calm myself. My entire frame was shaking. I really did _not_ like remembering Finn dating Quinn, but I know it's something I can't escape, especially considering the fact that Quinn, Finn and I go to the same school and even have a few classes together. I shook my head again, this time, somberly. All these notes and letters and cards just proved that Finn and Quinn truly _did_ have something between them while they were together. And I absolutely _hated_ to admit that, even to myself.

I read through the notes and letters and cards again – this time, more carefully – to pick out anything that I can use to my advantage. I held back my gags when I saw this one note written between them, obviously written during class:

**(A/N: Italics only is for Quinn; bold and italics is for Finn!)**

_Finn, stop staring at me. And quit making pouty faces!_

_**I can't! You're much prettier than Ms. Arbusday.**_

_Ugh, Finn, please. I love you, and you're cute too, but you have to pay attention to the lesson!_

_**But I don't WANT to learn about American history!**_

_FINN!_

_**Fine… and I love you too.**_

I rolled my eyes by the time I finished reading the note and ripped it to shreds, not caring about the consequences. Then, I piled the shredded pieces and set them aside. Ugh, I don't understand how Quinn was able to listen to that lesson anyway. I remember that lecture myself; I was in their class doodling in the corner because Ms. Arbusday was talking nonsense. I also remember Finn being really adorable and making those pouty faces Quinn's way. _Ugh!_ I don't think I will ever comprehend how Quinn was able to ignore Finn's cuteness. I read through many similar things afterward and sighed, trying to will myself to fully process whatever happened between them.

I put the notes and such to the side and rolled my neck. If I've learned anything so far, it's that Quinn and Finn really did love each other. But, I've also learned that she was a bit of a bitch to him, as seen in this one note where Quinn hastily wrote: "_Finn, I don't fucking care about that crap, okay?_" And unlike me – even if I am a bitch, probably even more than Quinn is – I don't think she was able to completely cast that side of her away from Finn. Okay, yeah, sometimes I can't hide the bitch in me either, but at least I try! After looking at all the notes they handed back and forth, Quinn didn't look like she did. So, that's totally an advantage for me! Thinking of this, I smirked. Finally, I have the upper hand on something!

Now, I sifted through the various pictures inside the box. There were pictures of Quinn by herself, and pictures of Finn and Quinn together: a dozen candids (oh, one of them was just of Finn, and he seemed to be laughing really hard at something. _Aw!_ He looks so cute! I think I'm just gonna keep this one for myself…) and an equal amount of proper photos for celebrations. I put the rest of the photos aside with the notes – except for the one of Finn laughing adorably; I separated that one from the rest – and stared at one picture that caught my eye. It was of Quinn, and she had paint all over herself: the ugly green dress she was wearing (and I do mean ugly; if Kurt ridicules me with _my_ clothing choices, I can only _imagine_ what he'd think of this dress), her hair, even her face! She wore a very furious expression and her hands were at her hips. Her lips were pressed into a tight, thin line as her eyes stared through the camera as if she wanted to set it on fire, or probably the person who was holding it. I chuckled to myself evilly. She looked absolutely ridiculous, red faced and somewhat immature! I grabbed the other photos, looking for anything similar, and found a familiar shade of green. Tossing the other pictures aside again, I looked at this one and saw that Quinn was screaming something as she threw a paintbrush at the camera, or the camera holder. Her mouth was opened and her teeth were barred as her open hand was in front of her, obstructing a clear view from her face and letting go of the paintbrush that she was holding. I snickered. Despite how angry Quinn looked in the picture, she looked _so_ stupid!

Pursing my lips, I set the shoebox to my side and got up. I walked over to Finn's desk and furrowed my brows as I looked for something to write with. Finally, I found a big, black, permanent marker and popped the cap off. I scribbled on something to check if the marker still had ink and… _yes!_… it was working. Grinning, I walked back over to my spot next to Finn's bed, sat down, and pulled all of the pictures onto my lap. Then, I began to scribble Xs over Quinn's face in the candid photos, deciding that, since I'm already getting rid of so much other shit from this damn box, Finn can keep some of the decent pictures (if he wants to actually _look_ for them, that is). I know it's immature, and stupid, and generally very pointless, but whatever. I felt justified in doing this! I mean, her and Finn were _so_ over now; it's not like he _needs_ these pictures anymore!

After, I took one photo of them I truly disliked and stared at it. It was a casual picture: they were standing close together, Finn had his arm around Quinn's shoulders and they beamed at the camera. Quinn looked far too pleased by Finn's arms around her. I narrowed my eyes and tore the picture right down the center, splitting Finn and Quinn apart. Then, I took Quinn's half of the photo and ripped it apart even more. By the time I finished tearing the picture apart, there were dozens among dozens of pieces. I picked up the pieces, along with the note I tore apart and the pictures that I scribbled Xs on, and stuffed them down Finn's trash can. For good measure, I threw away some of leftover pieces that stuck to my hand in the washroom across the hall's garbage bin. Then, I ran back to my spot by Finn's bed, grabbed everything (save the decent photos of him and Quinn; I slipped those messily in between his mattress and the structure that held his bed up), stuffed them back into the shoebox, and haphazardly threw it into the trash as well. When the box just made the trash can, I dusted my hands off, feeling stupidly accomplished, but accomplished nonetheless.

I grabbed the empty shoebox I found earlier and sat down on the floor again. Then, I took the other half of the torn picture, Finn's side of it, and placed it inside the box with the other picture of him I originally intended to keep. I took off the lid from the bottom of the box and made the top of the lid face towards me. Then, I took the permanent marker and scrawled my first name in huge letters on the top of the box in perfect cursive, swooping the end of my "l" into my signature star. I got up and walked over to Finn's computer then sat down on his seat. After typing in his password (which, after begging him, I managed to change into "iloverachel"), I opened up the program that got his webcam starting. Once I set up the webcam, I took four photos of myself: one of me grinning sweetly, one of me blowing a kiss to the camera, one of me making a heart with my hands, and one of my signature over-the-shoulder pout to the camera. Afterwards, I printed the photos onto one page and cut them out with scissors I ended up finding underneath the printer. Then, after taking ten entire minutes just to find it, I found a roll of tape in a corner underneath Finn's desk and taped the pictures on corners of the box lid where I wrote my name. Once I managed to find a proper pen, I took a sheet of printing paper from the printer and wrote:

_Here's a box for you to fill with memories of me when we're together!_

_Hopefully it overflows one day from the memories we share ;)_

_Love,  
>Rachel<em>

I folded the note in half and slipped it inside the shoebox. Then, I had another idea and walked over to Finn's computer once more. I took one more photo of myself, this time holding up a paper that read "I love you, Finn Hudson!" (which I wrote in huge letters on another sheet of printing paper) as I smiled widely. Then, I blew up the picture and printed it on the backside of the page that I wrote my proclamation on and slipped that into the box as well. I felt underachieved now as I looked back and forth between my nearly empty box and Quinn's still filled one, which still sat crookedly in Finn's trash can. But then I remembered that Quinn's box took years to fill and I only got started on mine today. This comforted me somewhat so I put the lid on my box and slipped it underneath Finn's bed, officially replacing Quinn's box. After that, I dusted myself off and began to practice for my and Finn's duet again. As I sang my parts of the duet effortlessly, I internally planned how I was going to convince Finn to sing his solo and how I was going to confront him about what I found today.

* * *

><p>IT'S DONE! Seriously though, can't you imagine Rachel doing something like this? LOL. Okay, faves and reviews would be awesome now :3 Hope you enjoyed it!<p>

x o x o bjaarcy

PS I hoped I stayed true to Rachel's character/personality! It was actually kinda fun writing this in her POV x3


End file.
